About

"I Serve the Soviet Union" is a memorable quote from the HBO historical miniseries Chernobyl. The phrase and a screenshot of soldiers saying the line to General Nikolai Tarakanov have been used to make jokes about communism and sharing.

Origin

On May 27th, 2019, the HBO series Chernobyl aired the fourth episode of the miniseries.^[1] In the episode, General Tarakanov thanks various members of the Chernobyl radiation cleanup team for their service to which they responded, "I serve the Soviet Union" (clip below).

Spread

The following day, actor Ralph Ineson tweeted ^[2] the photograph that would be used in the meme. The tweet received more than 2,500 likes and 190 retweets in less than two months (shown below, left). On May 29th, Redditor ^[3] wawiwuwe shared the tweet in the /r/ChernobylTV subreddit, where it received more than 1,100 points (100% upvoted) and 50 comments. They titled the post "I serve the Soviet Union."

Over the next few days, the phrase began to be used in various contexts, including image macros. On June 4th, 2019, for example, Redditor^[4] TheDeerBoi posted a screen capture from the series in which a character says the line (shown below, center).

On June 19th, Redditor^[5] M3me_L0rd_Farquaad shared a meme from the @Memes Instagram account in which the image of General Tarakanov shaking the soldiers' hands. They captioned the image, "Me: *opens pack of gum* / Everyone in class." The post received more than 8,200 points (98% upvoted) and 30 comments in less than two months (shown below, right).

On July 24th, Redditor Kimzhal shared a variation of the meme in the /r/dankmemes subreddit. They captioned the image, "Youtubers who leave links to songs used in the video." the post received more than 24,000 points (98% upvoted) and 100 comments in 24 hours (shown below).

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References